Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abstract
At the end of World War II, a severe 5-mo famine struck the cities in the western part of The Netherlands. At its peak, the rations dropped to as low as 400 calories per day. In 1972, cognitive performance in 19-y-old male conscripts was reported not to have been affected by exposure to the famine before birth. In the present study, we show that cognitive function in later life does seem affected by prenatal undernutrition. We found that at age 56 to 59, men and women exposed to famine during the early stage of gestation performed worse on a selective attention task, a cognitive ability that usually declines with increasing age. We hypothesize that this decline may be an early manifestation of an accelerated cognitive aging process.
First Page
16881
Last Page
16886
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1009459107
Publication Date
9-28-2010
Recommended Citation
De Rooij, Susanne R.; Wouters, Hans; Yonker, Julie E.; and Painter, Rebecca C., "Prenatal undernutrition and cognitive function in late adulthood" (2010). University Faculty Publications and Creative Works. 292.
https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/calvin_facultypubs/292